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Coyote/Prairie Dog Gun

Started by CX3, January 24, 2011, 09:27:28 PM

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CX3

Alright momma said I could git me a new one.  Heres the finalists........

Remington 700 VTR 204cal .  My price 649
Remington 700 SPSV 204cal  My price 499
Ruger M77 22 Hornet.  My price 550

Whichever one I get, will have a Leupold vx3 6-24, with leupold rings. Or a Bushnell 4200. (a little cheaper).  I also have a friend that hand loads 204, and has good results.  He could also load the hornet, but factory is about as good as they get.  

Heres my thoughts.  The VTR is gonna be loud as DanG because of the muzzle brake. But it looks awesome.   The SPSV is heavy. But it is a nice steady rifle, that would mostly ride in truck.   The hornet doesnt have the bang, but it is not nearly as loud as the 204.  Thats my thoughts.  Anyone else?????

The gun will be used mainly for varmint predator hunting, in MO and out west, as well as 2 prairie dog trips, and maybe the wife will deer hunt with it too.
John 3:16
You Better Believe It!

fishpharmer

Get it while you can. Soon pediatrician bills will roll in.  :D  I would get something a kid could shoot. ;)  won't be long, they will want to go too.  I never shot those cals.  If possible I would get .223, lots of cheap ammo, better ballistics then hornet.  Easy recoil for the kids ;D
Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

Woodwalker

204, don't worry about the noise. The bullet will get there way ahead of the sound.
Just cause your head's pointed, don't mean you are sharp.

Dave Shepard

For me it would have to be a Ruger of some sort. Probably a M77Vof some kind in .204
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Left Coast Chris

I have a Remington .243 bull barrel and just love it.   If you like to shoot long range it can do it and it is good for deer also.   Jack rabitts at 300 yards are possible if the wind is low.    If you want to save Coyote hides to sell the full metal jacket 85 grain works well for those long shots.   The heavy barrel improves the steadyness and the kick is lessened also.  Good gun.
Home built cantilever head, 24 HP honda mill, Case 580D, MF 135 and one Squirel Dog Jack Russel Mix -- Crickett

sandhills

My stepson has a 204 and we took it out last spring to shoot prairie dogs at the neighbors farm, I had never used one before that and I was really impressed.  I think it would be just as good for coyotes as well.

clww

My favorite is a .220 Swift. ;)
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

Wrangler55

I've got several varmint/target rifles.  A Ruger #1 in .22 Hornet. (not enough range or velocity for solid coyote kills, much less deer)  A Remington 700 Varmint in .222 Remington.  Great rifle for varmints, shoots a 50g bullet at 3150 fps.  A Savage Varmint in .223.  Better if you don't handload, and about 100 fps more velocity.  A Remington Varmint in .243.  Shoots an 80g bullet at 3250 fps.  Kills like stink, and very accurate.  Very little recoil, but still works fine for deer.  The 204 your looking at is usually very accurate and very high velocity. Will be a good coyote rifle, but not so much for deer.  If you are going to use a .223 on deer, go with a Savage varmint rifle because they have a 1 in 9" twist and can shoot heaver bullets with good accuracy.  The Remington's .223 twist is 1 in 12" and over 55g, the bullets don't usually shoot very well.  My Savage is the most accurate, out of the box, rifle I've ever owned. 

Here's a picture of my .222 Remington varmint rifle. I made the laminated blank from birdseye maple, wild cherry, and black walnut, then carved the stock using a pattern from a commercial rifle stock company. I love their stocks, but don't like plywood as much as real American hardwood. And to get what I want, I had to start carving my own stocks. And to get the beautiful wood at a cost where I could keep my stock prices low, I had to buy a sawmill! That's why I'm here.  To learn all I can about sawing lumber.


I'm so covered with sawdust, my nickname should be dusty...

fishpharmer

Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

CX3

Wrangler that is beautiful.  I want to hear more on the stock build. and thanks for the gun info everyone.
John 3:16
You Better Believe It!

ely

imo neither of those cartrigdes is right for deer sized game. if you are going to reload you can play with the hornet a little with heavier bullets and do ok for deer. but its not worth the trouble to me. i own a ruger 22 hornet, i love it for birds and such. my cuz owns the 204 it appears to be a good round for coyotes but i am not sure at what ranges. i feel like the wind will have a great factor on the 204 with the lighter bullets.

i think the 204 is a good round, but not really the end all varmit gun that everyone was hoping for.

celliott

Why get a multipurpose cartridge you can use for varmints AND deer? Get a dedicated varmint gun, then you would need to get a dedicated deer gun  ;D gotta think about these things.......
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Chuck White

I have a Ruger 77-22Hornet, Remington Model 7 in 223 Rem, & a TC Encore in 204 Ruger!

The Hornet is good for 150 yards, maybe a little more on prairrie dogs and fox/coyote sized game.
I've shot deer (heart/lung shots) with this out to around 85 yards, they usually fall right there.

I've shot quite a few woodchucks and a few deer with the 223.  It'll kill a deer just as dead as a 30-06 will.
Biggest plus for the 223 over the Hornet or the 204 is availability of cheap ammo.

I've shot a lot of woodchucks with the 204, out to 300 yards, and coyotes "max" out to 400 yards.
I wouldn't recommend this one for deer!
This is the most accurate rifle I have ever owned.  I can get 3-shot groups of 3/8 inch!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

ely

chuck, what grain bullet do you use in your hornet.?

cx3, thats a thought right there, get whatever caliber you like in the t/c encore and then its 350 bucks or less to get a different caliber rifle.
i like mine in 280 rem and 17 hmr.... so far.

Burlkraft

I have a 22-250 that I use as a woodchuck/doe gun

I use a 55 grain bullet for both.

Makes the woodchucks stop in their tracks.

Drops a doe like a rock with a head shot.

The only drawback is it has a varmint barrel and is not to good for movin' around.

It's a great gun in a blind tho... ;)
Why not just 1 pain free day?

Chuck White

Quote from: ely on January 25, 2011, 10:13:38 AM
chuck, what grain bullet do you use in your hornet.?

cx3, thats a thought right there, get whatever caliber you like in the t/c encore and then its 350 bucks or less to get a different caliber rifle.
i like mine in 280 rem and 17 hmr.... so far.


I load 45 grain Remington SP bullets in the Hornet!
I get just over MOA with my load.

I also have a TC ProHunter with a 28" barrel in 280 Remington.  Now, that one will reach right out there!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

ErikC

 Barrel life is pretty short on a 204 from what I have heard, but I don't own one. i like the .223 for reasons mentioned already...accuracy, cheap ammo is available, will kill deer fine with good shots, no recoil, not bad for noise. Handloads will get you greater accuracy like most calibers.
I have no experience with a 22 hornet but the .223 is a longer range caliber, with cheaper ammo.
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

Chuck White

Quote from: ErikC on January 25, 2011, 01:53:16 PM
Barrel life is pretty short on a 204 from what I have heard, but I don't own one. i like the .223 for reasons mentioned already...accuracy, cheap ammo is available, will kill deer fine with good shots, no recoil, not bad for noise. Handloads will get you greater accuracy like most calibers.
I have no experience with a 22 hornet but the .223 is a longer range caliber, with cheaper ammo.


I haven't heard anything about short barrel life with a 204!

As for the 22 Hornet and the 223 Rem, they're both the same caliber.

No doubt, the 223 will outshoot the Hornet in distance.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

ely

thanks for the info. i was unimpressed with the performance of the 35 gr Vmax on a does head. works great for crows.

clww

Beautiful stock, Wrangler :) :)
What's with the recoil pad ???
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

Banjo picker

Of the guns I have owned and traded off, the only one that I wish I had kept was the Rem ..223 with the bull barrel...Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

Wrangler55

Quote from: clww on January 25, 2011, 04:53:41 PM
Beautiful stock, Wrangler :) :)
What's with the recoil pad ???

It's what I had on hand... Not that a .222 needs anything to absorb recoil. I've already put on a thin pad and used that recoil pad on a Remington 660 in 350 Magnum.  It needs all the help I can give it because the 350 kills on one end and maims on the other.

Hal
I'm so covered with sawdust, my nickname should be dusty...

CX3

Well shoot.  I think you guys, and some of my buddies have me talked into a 223. 

Wrangler55, where did you get the blueprints for the stock? Is it online, or a brother-in-law deal??
John 3:16
You Better Believe It!

Wrangler55

Quote from: CX3 on January 25, 2011, 10:01:33 PM
Well shoot.  I think you guys, and some of my buddies have me talked into a 223. 

Wrangler55, where did you get the blueprints for the stock? Is it online, or a brother-in-law deal??

Blueprints? I don't need no stinking blueprints! I've got a stock duplicator.  The one I use is made by Dakota Arms and I use a 2 hp router to carve my stocks.  Here's the web page that got me started carving stocks.

http://www.6mmbr.com/gunweek011.html

I found this stock while looking up varmint rifle stuff. (You'll spend a lot of time looking at this entire site)  And I found this gun of the week.  The rifles on this page were built by Richard Franklin who's just outside Richmond, Va.  Look close at the walnut on the top photos.  You can see the glue line where he put 3 slabs of walnut together to make a laminated stock.  Down toward the middle you can see a thumbhole stock made from straight grain walnut & cherry.  If this stock had been made from either the walnut or cherry it would have been ok, but not spectacular.  The combination of walnut & cherry just made me want one! So, I called to buy one... They were expensive, and I could afford one, but I've got a bunch of rifles and one wasn't enough.  I spent a year looking for the technology to duplicate stocks. I even built a prototype carving machine to duplicate stocks.  It encouraged me enough that when I found a "Don Allen Duplicator" on e-bay that didn't sell, I called the guy and over the next month talked him into a reasonable price and drove to Pennsylvania to buy it.  He had a hard time finding tiger maple to make Kentucky style long rifles and had to pay up to $300 for a good blank.  That's the secret. Not what you sell your product for, but what it costs you to make it.  I also worked at a sawmill for a year to learn how to saw and about the lumber business so I could produce my own blanks.  Good quality walnut 3" thick to make a stock takes years to season.  4/4 wood, dried in a solar kiln so it seasons as it dries takes 30 days in the summer and 90 days in the winter to get ready to use.  I was interested in target/varmint/benchrest rifles so laminates were what I was interested in building for myself plus you know what it costs to produce your own lumber.  I can spend a couple of days a month sawing to produce all the gunstocks I can carve and sell them at a price where I'm competing with mass market gunstocks and price them where anyone with a rifle who needs or wants a new stock can afford one.  I also finish them to a point where all that's needed to finish them is a block of wood & sandpaper on the outside, and a couple of dowels & and sandpaper for the inside.  99% of the stocks I sell are unfinished and the customer gets the pleasure of creating something they can call their own.  A lot of them are for customers who are making up a rifle for a son, father, or someone else who's special to them.  I made a maple stock once from clear maple that I tinted pink.  I sanded it to 600 grit while wet with tung oil and the finish looked a mile deep.  Then sprayed it with auto clear coat tinted with pearl laquer and a tiny amount of red for the pink, then two coats of clear and a layer of gold metalflake sprayed on and another 3 or 4 coats of clear.  It looked fantastic. 

Here's what the stock I made to look like the walnut & cherry stock on 6mmbr. It was the 5th stock I carved.  I burned 3 before I felt they were good enough to use and sold the 4th.  I took this one to a gunstore to find a recoil pad and the store owner ordered one for his rifle.  That's how I got my first dozen orders.  Just walk into a gun store on a busy Saturday and look for a butt plate... Somebody would ask where I got my stock and I'd get another order.  I've been carving stocks for 3 years and I've never caught up with my orders.  Most of my customers are gunsmiths.

 



If you want to see how I setup and carve stocks, I've got several pages that describe how to do it.

Hal
I'm so covered with sawdust, my nickname should be dusty...

ErikC

Quote from: Chuck White on January 25, 2011, 04:19:13 PM
Quote from: ErikC on January 25, 2011, 01:53:16 PM
Barrel life is pretty short on a 204 from what I have heard, but I don't own one. i like the .223 for reasons mentioned already...accuracy, cheap ammo is available, will kill deer fine with good shots, no recoil, not bad for noise. Handloads will get you greater accuracy like most calibers.
I have no experience with a 22 hornet but the .223 is a longer range caliber, with cheaper ammo.


I haven't heard anything about short barrel life with a 204!

As for the 22 Hornet and the 223 Rem, they're both the same caliber.

No doubt, the 223 will outshoot the Hornet in distance.

They use the same bullet diameter, true. I guess to be absolutely precise they are different cartridges, not different calibers.
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

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